The Strangers – Chapter 2

In 2021, in the small town of Venus, Oregon, Carol's Diner waitress, Shelly, greets a man named Frank Quintanno, sharing the information she learns about him with an unseen patron. Later that night, Shelly knocks on the door of his motel room and asks if Tamara is home. Sometime later in the night, Shelly, Dollface, and Scarecrow kill Frank in the woods before embracing in the rain.

In 2023, Maya Lucas is recovering in the Venus County Hospital following her encounter with the three masked strangers. Her claims are brushed off by the Sheriff and his Deputy, who try to avoid the involvement of the state and federal police to avoid their cover ups being unmasked. Meanwhile, the town of Venus respond to Maya's attack in different ways. As night falls, Maya finds herself trapped in the hospital as the three masked strangers seek her out after discovering she is alive. After evading Scarecrow in the morgue, to which he kills an Orderly, Maya is able to escape and comes upon a horse farm where she seeks help from the owner who is killed by Pin-Up Girl with a crossbow. Maya evades the stranger and attacks her with a pitchfork before flagging down Nurse Danica and roommate, Chris Sampson, who are driving home.

Maya agrees to go to their home and on the drive they discover their roommates, Gregory and Wayne, walking home in the rain. Maya escapes from the car after having a panic attack about the occupants of the car being her attackers and she hides in the woods where she stitches up her opened wounds. Maya comes upon an abandoned campsite and starts a fire but is soon attacked by a wild boar who was freed from captivity by Scarecrow. Maya successfully kills the boar and flees back through the woods. Meanwhile, Pin-Up Girl, who was watching Maya, has flashbacks to when she was a child in school with Scarecrow, where she killed another student, Tamara, whom she was jealous of.

Back in the present day, Maya comes upon the cabin in which she was attacked and changes into new clothes. She is found by Billy Bufford, a state police officer, who tries to help her flee from Venus but he is killed by Pin-Up Girl. Maya flees in Bufford's car but the engine eventually dies down outside a house belonging to Gregory, Danica, Chris, and Wayne. They take her in for the night and Gregory quizzes Maya about her wounds and how long the town has been plagued by the Strangers. After Gregory leaves, Pin-Up Girl and Dollface attack and kill the remaining occupants in the house as well as the driver of a private EMT sent to take Maya to Portland.

Maya escapes into the EMT but is ambushed by Pin-Up Girl who was hiding inside. She stabs Pin-Up Girl in the neck with scissors, seemingly killing her. Maya flees in the EMT but during the ride, Pin-Up Girl tries choking her to death. Maya intentionally crashes the EMT, causing Pin-Up Girl to fly out of the windshield, resulting in her death. Maya flees into the woods as Dollface and Scarecrow arrive in their truck. The pair mourn the loss of Pin-Up Girl, removing her mask as Maya watches them from the woods.

Principal photography on all three films commenced over 52 days in September 2022 in Bratislava, Slovakia,^[8] and wrapped in November 2022.^[9][10] Following the release of the first installment, The Strangers: Chapter 2 and The Strangers: Chapter 3 underwent a month of additional photography to rework the film with audience feedback from the first film in mind.^[11] One week of the reshoots was devoted to Chapter 2, with flashbacks added to flesh out the villain's backstory and an investigation subplot involving Joplin Sibtain cut.^[12]

The Strangers: Chapter 2 had its Hollywood premiere on September 16, 2025.^[13] It also screened at Fantastic Fest on September 20, 2025.^[14][15] The film was released in the United States by Lionsgate Films on September 26, 2025.^[7]

In the United States and Canada, The Strangers – Chapter 2 was released alongside One Battle After Another and Gabby's Dollhouse: The Movie, and was projected to gross $6–8 million from 2,650 theaters in its opening weekend.^[3] It ended up debuting to $5.8 million, finishing fifth at the box office.^[16][17] In its second weekend the film grossed $2.8 million (a drop of 51%), finishing in eighth.^[18]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 15% of 66 critics' reviews are positive.^[19] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 28 out of 100, based on 12 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.^[20] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C–" on an A+ to F scale, the lowest of the franchise.^[16]

The final installment of the trilogy titled The Strangers – Chapter 3, will be released on an unspecified date.^[21]